Anthony Weiner gives tearful confessional, eyes comeback

• Abedin spoke to Hillary Clinton — who, after working with Abedin for almost two decades, is like an extended family member — after the scandal.

Declining to go into detail, Abedin said the entire Clinton clan had supported her and added that Clinton has said in the past: “At the very least, every woman should have the ability and the confidence and the choice to make whatever decisions she wants to make that are right for her and not be judged by it.’’

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Weiner seconded this, comparing Abedin — who had stood by her husband as the victim of a conspiracy, as he initially claimed to be — to Clinton herself during the Lewinsky scandal.

‘‘If you read Hillary’s biography of the time,’’ he said in the interview, ‘‘she speaks pretty frankly about believing that there were people out to get her husband — ‘I believe him, I’m going to stand in there, I’m going to tell friends that it’s bull’ — and the way she felt when she found out the truth.”

The traditionally media-shy Abedin talked about the process of forgiving her husband, who admitted to lying about having been hacked — a fact his former House colleagues continue to hold against him — but insisted it was to protect his then-pregnant wife from knowing the truth.

Speaking with candor, she said, ‘‘At the time, we were very early in our marriage, but it was an old friendship. He was my best friend. In addition to that, I loved him. There was a deep love there, but it was coupled with a tremendous feeling of betrayal. It took a lot of work, both mentally and in the way we engage with each other, for me to get to a place where I said: ‘OK, I’m in. I’m staying in this marriage.’

“Here was a man I respected, I loved, was the father of this child inside of me, and he was asking me for a second chance,” she added. “And I’m not going to say that was an easy or fast decision that I made. It’s been almost two years now. I did spend a lot of time saying and thinking: ‘I. Don’t. Understand.’ And it took a long time to be able to sit on a couch next to Anthony and say, ‘OK, I understand and I forgive.’ It was the right choice for me. I didn’t make it lightly.’’

• Weiner’s brother Jason told the Times that the former lawmaker has changed, pointing to the former congressman’s becoming the father of a son, Jordan, now a toddler.

‘‘I wouldn’t stand for other people saying this about him,” Jason Weiner said, “but there was definitely a douchiness about him that I just don’t really see anymore.’’